Mary Shelley (2017)

• Year: 2017
• Released: 05 Jul 2018
• Country: United Kingdom, Luxembourg, United States, Ireland, Australia
• Adwords: 2 wins & 7 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3906082/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mary_shelley
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mary-shelley
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 720p
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Biography, Drama, History
• Runtime: 120 min
• Writer: Emma Jensen, Haifaa Al-Mansour
• Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
• Cast: Elle Fanning, Bel Powley, Owen Richards
• Keywords: woman director, biography, based on true story, based on a true story, 19th century,

	6.4/10
	49/100
	41% – Critics
	48% – Audience

Mary Shelley Storyline

In 1814, Regency-era London, Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin is a 16 years old aspiring writer who works in the bookshop of her renowned father writer William Godwin, married in second terms after the passing of his first wife, philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, with the too married by second time Mary Jane Clairmont, where Mary Jane’s daughter of her first marriage Claire turns in a close and lovely stepsister for Mary. When Mary and Claire travel at the house of one of William’s friends in Scotland, Mary meets the 21 years old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, rising instantly a love interest between them. Returning to London little time later, Mary unexpectedly meets Percy again when he appears at her house in order to ask William to take him on as an apprentice. Fascinated by Percy, Mary begins a bohemian and torrid relationship with him despite the opposition of her father and her stepmother, especially after they discover that Percy is married with a little daughter whom he supports but he loves no longer. Determined to be free and live on her own terms, Mary flees with Percy to live together accompanied by Claire, who wants to get far from her abusive mother. Their initial happiness turns to tragedy due to the debts and poverty, in addition to the terrible loss of Mary and Percy’s daughter, who dies only a few months after to born. Broken by suffering and pain, as well as a season living with the rich, eccentric and hedonist Lord Byron and doctor John Polidori, Mary turns into a shadowy being, becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of resurrecting the dead, while Claire lives a stormy and painful romance with the own Byron. All these events will lead Mary, motivated by a Lord Byron’s bet about who can write the scariest horror novel, to find her own voice and exorcise her innermost demons by writing “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus”. But when prejudices of these times cause the novel to be attributed to Percy Shelley, it forces Mary to fight by claiming the novel as her own to prove that a woman can be the writer as she is.

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Mary Shelley Movie Reviews

This might have worked better as a six hour TV mini-series.

Mary Shelley: This film is a tad confused as it tries to fit so much into a 2 hour running time. There is the romance between Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth) and Mary Wollstonecraft (Elle Fanning); her freethinking father William Godwin (Stephen Dillane); her deceased mother Mary Wollstonecraft the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; the affair between Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley) and Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge); then there is the tale of the Swiss villa where the Frankenstein story was conceived. Mary even has a nasty stepmother (Joanne Froggatt).

Booth and Fanning both look exceedingly pretty and it’s certainly lust if not love at first sight but somehow there are no real sparks in the relationship. Shelley is a cad who has deserted his wife and child and now hopes to have free love with Mary and more on the side. The real fire rages between Powley and Sturridge even if his Byron portrayal is somewhat reminiscent of Jason Isaacs plying Zhukov. The Swiss scenes where Frankenstein was thought up are surprisingly low key with Polidori (Ben Hardy) providing the main interest.

This might have worked better as a six hour TV mini-series. 6/10.

Would-be worthiness

MARY SHELLEY is another would-be worthy biopic of a famous person, but one which fails to connect in the same way as the best of those in this genre, namely the likes of THE IMITATION GAME, CREATION and AMAZING GRACE. Elle Fanning is a serious piece of miscasting in the titular role, playing the famous author as vapid and rather senseless; her co-stars are better, even though some of them seem to be there for token name value alone (Maisie Williams, I’m looking at you). The movie is directed by someone with little affinity for the material and written by someone with a heavy hand, determined to spread her proto-feminism message while at the same time neglecting some of the basics of a historical film, namely realism and fully-fledged characterisation.

compelling life

Mary Godwin (Elle Fanning) has known loss all her life. Her mother died soon after childbirth. Her beloved father supported her learning despite his struggling book business. He sends her to stay in Scotland with the Baxters. There she is taken with young budding poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth). He follows her back to London promising to pay her father’s debts. Mary is shocked when his wife and child show up. Despite the scandalous abandonment and her father’s disapproval, she runs away with him taking her younger step-sister Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley) along with them. Percy is cut off from his family and they struggle for money. She faces further abandonment as he pursues the philosophy of free love. Claire has a fling with famed writer Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge). Mary finds common cause with Dr. John Polidori. At age 18, she writes the seminal work drawing from her loss of mother, child, and possibly her husband.

This story has lots of good potential and a solid performance by Fanning. This is a biopic of one of the great literary figures. She has a great story to tell. It’s the highest priority to zero in on the subject’s central premise. For Mary, it should tie in with abandonment for her monster. Instead, this is a muddled narrative that fails to focus on that singular idea. Although Isabel Baxter may be a big part of a specific part of her life, there’s no need for her since all that’s necessary from that section is an introduction to Percy. Percy’s free love demand seems to come out of nowhere and yet it’s a big part of their common philosophy. There is a lack of intellectual understanding of these characters. Despite all the flaws, Fanning is an appealing lead actress and she holds the screen to the end. Mary Shelley lived a compelling life and this movie gives a fleeting glimpse into it.